The present disclosure relates generally to vehicular warning light systems adapted primarily for installation on emergency response and service vehicles. More particularly, the present invention relates to warning light assemblies in the form of individual lights and lightbar assemblies mounted on emergency vehicles, such as police, fire, ambulance and other vehicles.
Conventional emergency vehicle lightbars employed for warning light applications on emergency vehicles typically include a longitudinal support with light sources, electronic assemblies and various lenses and covers mounted to the substrate. The lenses and/or covers define a weather-resistant enclosure surrounding the light sources and the electronic assemblies. Prior to modern LED light sources, warning lights employed halogen or strobe light sources generating white light and used colored lenses to filter out undesired colors to generate colored light signals. This approach required the light source to generate far more light than was necessary for the desired emission pattern, because significant portions of the generated light were lost in passing through the colored lens. LED light sources generate light in each of the desired warning colors of red, blue, yellow and eliminate the need to use colored lenses. Most emergency warning light assemblies now employ clear lenses that allow a maximum proportion of the light generated by LED light sources to pass through the lens.
One result of the use of LED light sources and clear lenses is that the internal structures of the warning light assembly are clearly visible through the transparent lens. Some find the visible internal structures to be unsightly. The internal structures of a warning light typically include reflectors and optical lenses for shaping light emitted from the LED light sources. The optical components tend to catch light and generate reflections that are highly visible under most conditions, even when the warning lights are not in use. Many law enforcement vehicles are configured to be relatively inconspicuous and may be referred to as “unmarked” vehicles. For such applications it is desirable for any emergency warning light equipment to be inconspicuous, making it desirable to obscure the reflectors and optics contained in emergency warning lights mounted to unmarked law enforcement vehicles.
Because of the clear and/or transparent nature of lenses and/or covers, the internal components of emergency warning lights are commonly visible when the light emitters are inactive. There is a need for emergency warning lights that are inconspicuous until activated.